For the past few months I’ve been collaging up a storm. I really like the process of combining paper and fabric iinto medium-sized compositions.

And, in this batch, I’ve introduced a few new printing elements. I ordered some small screens for silkscreen printing with images I had photographed and simplified in PhotoShop.

So, my challenge to myself… How can I incorporate these new images, but not make all the works the same? I’ve been answering that question with some variations on a theme.

Here’s are my basic tree shapes, next to the printing screens

.And here are a few of the works I’ve created so far.

AS DAY BECOMES A PRESENCE
In this collage, the tree appears in two places. On the right, it’s upright, and printed against a piece of brown muslin. As I’ve been experimenting with the screen printing, I am learning that every pull won’t look the same. The amount of paint in the screen and how hard you pull the squeegee are just two of the variables that affect the appearance. In this section, the black forming the tree is a bit faded out. In some applications, this would be a reject. In this piece, I think it adds a sense of depth. In the lower left, same screen – same paint – same brown background. But the pull was thick and dense. Now these two sections in the work speak to each other and add unity.

IMPRINTED IN THE EARTH
This one shows some of the serendiipitous events that occur in hand printmaking, I pulled out both blank fabric and previously monotype-printed fabric to print these trees onto. This green rock-filled piece of sheer fabric has haunted me from the scrap bin for awhile. I love it but hadn’t found  a place to use it. So, I printed the reverse-image (Black background, underneath color showing through) thinking I would use it and cut it off of the green rocks. It turns out I really like how they go together. So I incorporated the whole piece as the center image in the collage.

KNOWING WE ARE MADE OF THIS
Back to the whole-tree image. It’s printed on a piece of scrap muslin I had with a wash-looking section of olive green in one part and blank nothing-printed on the rest. I was pleased with the look of the tree crossing those sections. And the no-print area of the muslin became the perfect place to collage the positive shapes from the honeycomb pattern. (I had printed those as monotypes earlier on very thin tissue paper.) I also Like the repeat of the honeycomb shape with a different feel at the bottom where it was printed olive green on muslin.

Just a bit of happiness. The sky-with-clouds was monotype printed on sheer fabric. I like the pale green dome on top that allows the sky to show through. It looked like a good background for some tree shapes. I printed the green trees with a hand-cut stencil. Those limbs are not nearly as detailed as the photographic images on my screen. But they are a good backdrop. This idea evolved as I worked. I had not intended to add the red-orange trees. But, the green ones just weren’t enough. Once the orange-red colors were there, the complementary color pattern made everything “pop” and become quite cheerful. I added the dark fabric to anchor it, and the red bird to bring it all together.

I was absolutely thrilled to have some good sales on these works after I uploaded them to my website. So, here’s one of my really-and-truly happiest accomplishment of this week:

Tadaaaa! All the orders are boxed and ready to ship. Off to UPS I go tomorrow.

If you’d like to learn more about the works in this blog or see more collages, please visit the gallery on my website, HERE

https://www.bobbibaughstudio.com/wednesday-collage/

For the rest of my day, I’ve blocked off some hours to start on my taxes. UGH. (I guess since I’ve written that down here in public  now I’ll really have to do it.) Have a good week.

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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